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This book examines the early modern science of generation, which included the study of animal conception, heredity, and fetal development. Analyzing how it influenced the contemporary treatment of traditional philosophical questions, it also demonstrates how philosophical presuppositions about mechanism, substance, and cause informed the interpretations offered by those conducting empirical research on animal reproduction. Composed of cutting-edge essays written by an international team of leading scholars, the book offers a fresh perspective on some of the basic problems in early modern philosophy.

First collective work devoted exclusively to the problem of animal generation in early modern philosophy and science

On the cutting edge of the burgeoning scholarly interest, particularly among historians of philosophy, in early modern life science

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"This rich volume aims at helping historians “to gain a fresh perspective on some of the basic problems of early modern philosophy,” by studying how these problems manifest themselves in discussions of animal generation.... the volume can easily be recommended to historians of early modern philosophy and experts alike."
--S a n d e r W. d e B o e r, Journal of the History of Philosophy

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Product details

Date Published: September 2012

format: Paperback

isbn: 9781107407282

length: 474pages

dimensions: 229 x 152 x 24 mm

weight: 0.63kg

availability: Available

Table of Contents

Part I. The Dawning of a New Era:1. The comparative study of animal development: from Aristotle to William Harvey J. G. Lennox 2. Monsters, nature, and generation from the Renaissance to the Early Modern period: the emergence of medical thought Annie Bitbol-Hesperies Part II. The Cartesian Programme:3. Descartes' experiments and the generation of animals Vincent Aucante 4. Imagination and the problem of heredity in Cartesian embryology Justin E. H. Smith Part III. The Gassdendian Alternative:5. The soul as vehicle for genetic information: Pierre Gassendi's account of inheritance Saul Fisher 6. Atoms and minds in Walter Charleton's theory of animal generation Andreas Blank Part IV. Second-Wave Mechanism and the Return of Animal Souls, 1650–1700:7 Animal generation and substance in Sennert and Leibniz Richard T. W. Arthur 8. Malebranche on animal generation: pre-existence and the microscope Andrew J. Pyle 9. Spontaneous and sexual generation in Ann Conway's Principles Deborah Boyle 10 'Animal' as category: Pierre Bayle's 'Rorarius' Dennis Des Chene Part V. Between Epigenesis and Pre-Existence: The Debate Intensifies, 1700–70:11. Method and cause: the Cartesian context of the Haller-Wolff debate Karen Detlefsen 12. Soul power: G. E. Stahl and the debate on animal generation Francesco Paolo di Ceglia 13. Charles Bonnet's neo-Leibnizian theory of organic bodies Francois Duchesneau Part VI. Kant and His Contemporaries on Development and the Problem of Organized Matter:14. Kant's early views on epigenesis: the role of Maupertuis John Zammito 15. Blumenbach and Kant on the formative drive: mechanism and teleology in nature Brandon Look 16. Kant and the speculative sciences of origins Catherine Wilson 17. Kant and evolution Michael Ruse.

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